Hi, this is my first post here, so I’m not 100% sure how things work (some of these images might not show up or something!). I feel it’s necessary to give you folks some background info before I get to the main point, just so you can put things into context. If you don’t feel like reading my incredibility interesting (and boring to some) story, just skip to the fifth paragraph.
I’ve been at war with my weight for quite some time. As a sophomore in high school I weighed somewhere around 290 lbs. That is until I joined weight training class and worked my ass off. At the end of my senior year I weighed 260 lbs. But, unfortunately, I injured my knees towards the end of highschool so I couldn’t do any cardio for a while and my weightloss was put on hold. Once my knees recovered, I did lots of “fasted” jogging and modified my diet (a little) and I lost 45 lbs (I went from 260 to 215).
However, with that weight loss came a lot of strength loss as well… and probably some muscle loss too. In the summer of 2008 I had looked my best I had ever looked, but that soon changed. Earlier that year I had re-injured my legs (so cardio was out of the question). And eventually, in mid 2009 I injured my triceps as well (I couldn’t even open a door!). As a result, I stupidly thought that it was best to take a break rather than go see a doctor (I had already seen 2 and they didn’t help solve my problems). I sat on my ass for 3 months, eating pizza and chocolate chip cookies, until I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere doing nothing.
So, I saw another doctor who said I’d never be able to lift the way I used to ever again - this pissed me off. He sent me to physical therapy, and there I had to make an important, life-changing decision. It was time for me to either submit to his bullshit of “never being able to lift the way I did again” or prove that fucker wrong and kick ass! After a month in physical therapy I decided that it was a waste of money and returned to the weight room. At first it was a big challenge (I could barely bench 135 for 3 sets of 15), but I overcame it and I started making good progress. However, my fat-ass habits still lingered. During the summer I went to all sorts of all-you-can-eat buffets and feasted… I was lifting and jogging miles and miles just so I could stuff my face.
And that’s how I got to this point. I decided that it was time to regain my former discipline and start loosing weight, but since I had lost so much strength before, I wanted to do things differently. My plan is to loose one lb a week by much more careful dieting and some cardio here and there. And after I reach a point where I’m satisfied, I plan to pack on the muscle and increase my strength. I didn’t want to “bulk up” when I already had a beer-gut and man-boobs; instead, I want to chisel away at my foundation and rebuild (so future weight loss doesn’t have to be so immense).
So, here’s my question, do you think my pictures demonstrate good progress?? Do you think I should continue what I’m doing or is the pace of weight loss too slow, and more drastic measures necessary?
Here are my pics so far…
Link to Gallery:
Note: The first image is from september, the second from the start of october, the third from the end of october, etc.
I’ve lost somewhere between 6-10 lbs (maybe a little more) in the past two months. So I’ve done well in sticking to my 1 lb a week plan. However, I plan to only do it for 1-2 more months (so 4-8 more lbs) - I’m wondering if you folks think I need to go even further (progressing at this rate, will I still be a fat-ass?). I’m not trying to be a bodybuilder or anything like that, I’m just aiming to be strong and healthy.